Job 4:17 Cross References

Job 4:17

17: `Can a mortal be just and upright before God? Can a person be pure before the Creator?'

"Yes, I know this is all true in principle. But how can a person be declared innocent in the eyes of God?

How can a mere mortal stand before God and claim to be righteous? Who in all the earth is pure?

There is not a single person in all the earth who is always good and never sins.

Of course not! Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say, "He will be proved right in what he says, and he will win his case in court."
"But," some say, "our sins serve a good purpose, for people will see God's goodness when he declares us sinners to be innocent. Isn't it unfair, then, for God to punish us?" (That is actually the way some people talk.)
Of course not! If God is not just, how is he qualified to judge the world?
"But," some might still argue, "how can God judge and condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?"

Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods!

Are you going to discredit my justice and condemn me so you can say you are right?

No, don't say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to criticize God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, "Why have you made me like this?"

Even if I were to wash myself with soap and cleanse my hands with lye to make them absolutely clean,
you would plunge me into a muddy ditch, and I would be so filthy my own clothing would hate me.

And then he added, "It is the thought-life that defiles you.
For from within, out of a person's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasure, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you and make you unacceptable to God."

But no, you won't listen. So you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself because of your stubbornness in refusing to turn from your sin. For there is going to come a day of judgment when God, the just judge of all the world,

"The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

LORD, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. Now let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy?

Yet they don't ask, `Where is God my Creator, the one who gives songs in the night?

Surely you wouldn't do such a thing, destroying the innocent with the guilty. Why, you would be treating the innocent and the guilty exactly the same! Surely you wouldn't do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?"

Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty--the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come."

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